Christmas Shopping

Well, now Bonfire Night has been and gone, we're in the run in to Christmas proper. As documented in other posts, I've been buying a few Christmas presents here and there over the last few months and I am pleased to say that LB's presents have now almost all been bought, bar a few bits from Lush, which I can pick up the next time I'm in the mall.

My focus now will be on OH's presents.  He is much more difficult to buy for, as he rarely wants anything, save for cycling clothing or equipment, which is very pricey and he's very particular.  I've already bought him quite a few smaller things, but the big ticket gifts he would like this year, a long sleeved cycling jersey and a new drill, are the main things I now need to purchase.  I'm just waiting for him to research the exact ones he wants.

I've decided that for most of the other gifts I'm giving, I'm probably going to give vouchers or money, plus some sweets or consumables of some kind. Most are for teenagers (or adults who can be difficult to buy for), and if LB is anything to go by, they tend to just prefer money anyway, instead of things not of their choosing that they don't really want. This way, money and time don't get wasted and they have the fun of spending it however they want to after Christmas.

It probably sounds like a bit of a cop out, but I've put so much thought and effort in in past years and still felt like the gifts I bought didn't really hit the spot.  I just don't want to do it anymore. Besides, I myself don't want anything from anyone, so reducing the gifts I give, is a good way to reduce unwanted gifts coming back, or so I'm hoping.

Lets face it, although it's nice to receive gifts, if there's anything I want, I just buy it for myself these days and I'm much pickier than I used to be about beauty products I'll use, so quite often I  recycle unwanted gifts by (discretely) re-gifting things, if I'm not likely to use them.  It all seems such a ridiculous waste at times.

Anyway, I'm now more than halfway through the £100 Xmas budget for this month, so maybe only one of OH's gifts will get bought this month and the rest will have to wait until December, but I'm hoping you won't find me madly trawling the shops at the last minute. I'm hoping that I'll more likely be serving those that do in the CS.

Talking about trawling the shops, today, I popped into Poundland for a couple of things and spent £21, mostly on Christmas wrapping/tissue paper/gift bags/decorations/fairy lights/crackers and an advent calendar for LB. They do have some quite nice items in there at the moment.  I probably should have got the wrapping paper out of the loft before I bought anymore, but I wanted some more modern paper for LB's gifts and they had some nice designs, so I bought some more anyway.

In future years, I'm going to take a leaf out of Flylady Diane's book and buy quite plain wrapping paper that can be used all year round and then jazzed up with Xmas ribbon or other decorations to make it more festive at Christmas. 

I also bought some digital advent calendars today, one for me and one each for my two sisters, from the Jacquie Lawson website.  That is my Xmas gift to myself and the two of them this year, as we don't generally buy one another gifts. I hope they'll enjoy them.  I intend to use and enjoy mine.

I'm starting to get a bit excited about Christmas now and feel a bit more festive. How are you feeling?